


Seasons Turn

by likethenight



Category: TOLKIEN J. R. R. - Works & Related Fandoms, The Lord of the Rings (Movies), The Lord of the Rings - All Media Types, The Lord of the Rings - J. R. R. Tolkien
Genre: Character Study, Gardens & Gardening, Gen, Healing, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder - PTSD
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-09
Updated: 2020-07-09
Packaged: 2021-03-04 20:33:54
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 572
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25172434
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/likethenight/pseuds/likethenight
Summary: Sam is back in his garden, and perhaps the turn of the seasons will bring him comfort.
Comments: 8
Kudos: 9
Collections: Tolkien Gen Week 2020





	Seasons Turn

**Author's Note:**

> Written for tolkiengenweek2020, day 4: solo. I didn't have anything already written for this prompt, and given that I have a ridiculously large soft spot for Samwise Gamgee (probably having a lot to do with the fact that I've had a soft spot for Sean Astin for thirty years, since I first saw him as a young'un in _Memphis Belle_ , the first film to really grab my attention; if there had been an easily accessible fandom then, I'd have been up to my neck in it), this just sort of came to me once I started thinking about it a bit.

Everything is over, the Hobbits are back home in the Shire, and more often than not Samwise Gamgee is to be found in his garden or Frodo’s. To a casual observer it would appear that he is just pottering, a bit of weeding here, a spot of deadheading there, planting and transplanting, potting and repotting; but there is far more going on than that, in Sam’s mind and his heart at least. 

It is balm to his wounded spirit, to be back in his garden at last, back among his plants. Here is where he belongs, not traipsing halfway across Middle-Earth, not hauling Mr Frodo up the side of Mount Doom to throw that accursed ring into the flames. And yet those are the things he has done, and all of the pottering Sam is doing in the garden is a cover for the work he is doing underneath, to reconcile his two lives, to work through everything that has happened to him since the last time he pottered among his plants.

He made a garden in Minas Tirith, along with Legolas, after the Shadow was defeated and after he himself had more or less recuperated from his part in that defeat. He couldn’t help himself, he stumbled upon a neglected corner near the palace and almost before he knew it they'd had soil brought in and the two of them had found plants to put in it, and it wasn’t until Aragorn came to see him there one day that he had thought to ask the King’s permission.

Aragorn had simply laughed softly. “No permission is needed, Sam, but if it makes you feel better of course you have it. This will be a peaceful haven for all of us when we need it.”

And so it was. Or, at least, Sam hopes it is. Legolas had offered to keep an eye on his garden for him, being as how he was setting up a colony in Ithilien, and also seemed to be spending a certain amount of time in Dol Amroth. It wasn’t for Sam to speculate - it still isn’t - but he hopes his friend is happy. It has been a while now, and Sam hopes for a letter sometime to let him know how his garden is doing; but just the act of creating it had been enough for him, really. 

And now here he is at home, planting things and watching them grow. His petunias are already taking up far more space than they did three weeks ago, flowering madly and making him smile despite himself every time he sees them. The roses are in bloom, too, and Sam wonders if that’s a sign, a prompt, a nudge in the right direction.

The seasons turn, the years pass, the moons wax and wane, the plants grow and die back and grow again. Sam wonders if in a few years all of his adventures will be just harmless memories, growing ever further away with each turn of the year. It doesn’t feel like it, just now, but the plants grow the same as ever, and Sam hopes that they will help him forget the dreams of unrelenting fire and evil. He is home at last, at least, in his garden, with his flowers and his herbs, his vegetables and his shrubs, and perhaps that will be enough to heal the wounds he carries that nobody can see but him.

**Author's Note:**

> Sam's garden in Minas Tirith also features in my story [A Gardener's Tale](https://archiveofourown.org/works/723181), which also explains why Legolas was spending a lot of time in Dol Amroth.


End file.
